You're letting partisanship blind your reason. The income tax in the US originally 1% on incomes over $3000 and 7% on incomes over $500,000. That would be like a 1% income applied to incomes over $100k and 7% applied to incomes over $16 million.

The US federal income tax was indeed initially something only applied to the very wealthy. The upper middle class paid a nominal 1% income tax, but only the truly wealthy had to pay substantial income tax. It expanded over time to hit the entire population.

So no, it's not bullshit. Taxes expand over time. I'm in favor of taxing the wealthy, but I also try not to let my personal biases cloud my reason. I suggest you do the same.